Friday, June 26, 2009

Back to Ushaw

It was a great privilege to be the celebrant at the opening High Mass at the LMS training conference at Ushaw in April. I never thought it was something I would ever do. Tomorrow will see me returning to Ushaw for the EF Mass for the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge`s conference. I was originally booked to be subdeacon at a High Requiem Mass but now it is a Missa Cantata and I`m to be celebrant. I`ll be taking my favourite black vestment with me and am looking forward to hearing the chant.

Mass is at 10.15. There is some uncertainty as to whether it is open to everyone to attend: they may need to sign in for `fire purposes` I`m told.

9 comments:

1569 Rising
said...

Father,

It would be reassuring to us peasantry to know that we will not be turned away at the door. I have no objection to "signing in", but would not want to suffer the humiliation of having to scarper with my tail between my legs.

'They may need to sign in for `fire purposes`you say. I often think that public meeting places which decree that those attending should sign in should state when the last fire occurred on their premises. Health & Safety reigns, I suppose. I wonder when we shall be obliged to sign in for Mass in our parish churches.

Concerned parishioner, you will no doubt be glad to hear that not very much has been bought with parish money. I bought this vestment and most of the others out of my own money. There is a red Roman vestment I bought out of parish money and green, white and purple Gothic sets which cost about £200 each. I don`t like the very expensive Maison Bouvrier vestments I found on arrival. The altar set of six candlesticks and crucifix was paid for by a generous donation from a couple in the parish. The large Baroque chalice I bought with my own money as well as a set of cruets. The gong and bells were bought out of parish money (about £300).

I don`t think I`ve spent that much parish money. Unlike the quarter of a million which was spent to create the church as it is now where we have a sanctuary which is too small and a seating arrangement which was impractical and no organ worth speaking of.

Those MPs have a lot to answer for, with their expenses scandal. Sonow does a priest have to answer questions about how much parish money he has spent on items for use in the course of his priestly work? If Father had bought gold encrusted collars for his cats, people would be quite justified in calling him to account, but vestments and chalices? Should God's work be rendered down to the basic bare bones? Let us preserve the dignity, the sublimity, the divine mystery. [ And another thing: Where would they be without a good mix of glorious incense? Remember the words from the carol "We Three Kings"?: "incense owns a deity nigh" But that's another story] I for one don't think you can attain these things with Father saying Mass clad in a black bin bag and socks, with the hosts on a cardboard cake board and the blood of Christ in an old cracked teacup.

Truly, I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church impressed me.

St Augustine: Contra epistolam Manichaei 5.6

“The usus antiquior should be a standard element of the cultural capital of all Latin Rite Catholics since it so effectively resists secularism and satisfies the post-modern hunger for coherent order, beauty and an experience of self-transcendence.”